Royals In Battle With Broadcasters For Control Of Coronation Video – Deadline
Now the Coronation headache of whether the Sussexes will attend the ceremony and where they will sit has gone away (Prince Harry going, Meghan Markle staying put in LA), another one has taken its place.
Buckingham Palace, official home of the new king, is at loggerheads with British broadcasters over control of the video of the event, which will take place on May 6 in London’s Westminster Abbey.
The Times newspaper reports that news providers BBC, ITN and Sky have united to play “hardball” with the Palace, requesting restrictions be removed from highlights programmes of the event.
The tussle comes after only 60 minutes of approved material was allowed to be used following the late Queen’s funeral in September last year, with all other footage taken out of circulation.
“The broadcasters are playing harder ball than we did last time,” The Times quotes an insider revealing. “We aren’t taking anything lying down.”
The Times reveals talks are continuing, with the broadcasters of the firm opinion that, while the funeral was a family event and could be reasonably controlled as far as footage went, the coronation of the monarch is a different matter, a national and historical event with a responsibility to the public.
And The Times quotes one unnamed broadcaster asking:
“It is a historic, taxpayer-funded event and if [palace concerns] are about maintaining the smoke and mirrors of monarchy then what’s that about?”
The level of control exerted by the royals over footage of the Queen’s funeral was revealed by veteran British broadcaster David Dimbleby, who commentated on the event for the BBC, but who isn’t in the presenters’ lineup for the coronation.
Dimbleby told an audience at Henley Book Festival that even as he spoke to the nation live from St George’s Chapel in Windsor – where the Queen was buried in the final ceremony of the day – the BBC was receiving emails “almost simultaneously” from palace officials, dictating which clips of footage could not be shown in any subsequent broadcast.
